The Thing About Jellyfish

Throughout Suzy’s narrative, a motif of environmental issues like pollution and conservation are observable. These issues serve as symbols of Suzy’s conflict with control. For example, Suzy mentions that she once tried to discuss the Garbage Vortex—a collection of plastic and trash in the Pacific Ocean, growing at an out-of-control pace—with her father. She recalls images of a starving polar with sadness. Repeatedly Suzy mentions how blooms of jellyfish have an uncontrolled impact on other species and even humans, as they can clog the pipes of industrial infrastructures. She mentions that Australia’s animals that grow to large sizes and exhibit unnatural behaviors: “In Australia, people have seen spiders eat birds, centipedes eat snakes, snakes eat crocodiles, crocodiles eat children” (102).

Suzy also mentions the scale of Earth in the universe and how perspective greatly influences one’s sense of control; for example, the astronaut’s photo from 1968 presents a powerful-looking Earth, while the shot of the universe shows Earth’s minimal size in relation to the cosmos. Also, the fish in the tank at Ming Palace demonstrate to Suzy that environment and habitat has everything to do with perceived control: “Those poor fish didn’t even know there was such a thing as a giant ocean tank in an aquarium, let alone an entire ocean” (254). Finally, even the images on Mrs. Turton’s video that she shares over lunch, while beautiful, are hypnotic to Suzy and cause an emotional reaction that she cannot control: “All that fluttering, that color, yellow against blue, the in-and-out movement of their winds, I thought something inside me might crack in two” (204).